Arkansas Business articles from October 2000

Arkansas Business archives from October 2000

"KEEPING THE PROMISE".
October 2, 2000... THE IMPORTANCE OF TWO-YEAR COLLEGES to Arkansas' economy is invaluable. Through partnerships such as the Arkansas Association of Two-Year Colleges' Workforce Training Consortium, businesses are able to partner with these colleges to offer...

Businesses and Two-Year Colleges Work Closely to Provide Constant Employee Training.
October 2, 2000... MARTIN MACHEN believes in the power of partnerships between business and educational institutions. Machen, manager of personnel and industrial engineering at Cooper Tire and Rubber in El Dorado, oversees a partnership with South Arkansas...

Famous Faces.
October 2, 2000... Two-Year Colleges Have Played a Role in Many Successful Careers CLINT EASTWOOD WALT DISNEY CALVIN KLEIN JEANNE KIRKPATRICK H. ROSS PEROT JACKIE ROBINSON JOAN LUNDEN JOHN MELLENCAMP ALL reached the...

WESTARK COLLEGE.
October 2, 2000... 1st Place Winner Wayne Atchley "Westark College -- Caring Beyond All Expectations" AFTER SUFFERING A DISABLING INJURY TO my cervical spine, I found myself entangled in the red tape of the Worker's Comp and Social Security Disability...

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS COMMUNITY COLLEGE AT BATESVILLE.
October 2, 2000... "A New Way to Manage" UPPER MANAGEMENT ASKED ME IF I WAS interested in taking a course that might help me become a better supervisor. At this time 1 had been a supervisor for one and a half years. I hadn't been in a classroom since they...

OUACHITA TECHNICAL COLLEGE.
October 2, 2000... "My New Life" Through junior high and high school, I dreamed of going to college. I worked diligently to qualify for the honor society in preparation for higher education. As many women my age, I married after high school and became a...

ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY AT MOUNTAIN HOME.
October 2, 2000... "Why a Two-Year College is Important to a Community" MY EXPERIENCE HAS BEEN THAT YOUNG people graduate from high school and immediately find it necessary to move from their homes, families and friends if they want to pursue an education...

ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY AT NEWPORT.
October 2, 2000... "Finding The Dream" BEYOND THE DARK MORASS OF A CYPRESS swamp, amid the green contoured rice fields of Jackson County lies an army airbase left over from World War II where there is both vision and dream. Some simply retire after working...

SOUTH ARKANSAS COMMUNITY COLLEGE.
October 2, 2000... "Why a Two-Year College is Important to a Community" ANNA IS JUST ONE EXAMPLE OF A CHANGED life...a better life... not only for one, but for two. That's because a better life for Anna means a better life for her son, a life that boasts a...

SOUTHEAST ARKANSAS COLLEGE.
October 2, 2000... "Untitled" IN MY SENIOR YEAR OF HIGH SCHOOL, WHILE carrying a 3.4 grade point average, I became pregnant and was forced to drop out of school due to sickness. After giving birth to a healthy baby boy, I was eager to obtain my high school...

RICH MOUNTAIN COMMUNITY COLLEGE.
October 2, 2000... "I Am Ready" GREETINGS FROM A PROUD MEMBER OF the Rich Mountain Community College class of 2000. 1 am honored to have the opportunity to write about the impact attending Rich Mountain Community College has had on my life and my college...

SOUTHERN ARKANSAS UNIVERSITY TECH.
October 2, 2000... "Community College Life" THE FIRST DAY I OFFICIALLY SET FOOT ON the campus of SAU Tech, I was so scared. First of all, I was 33 years old, and I felt I was too old to be returning to school. Second, I was not sure I would be able to keep...

MISSISSIPPI COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE.
October 2, 2000... "Promises Kept" THERE IS PROMISE FOR THE FUTURE OF Arkansas residents through the continued development of an educational system able to provide access to education to all citizens. While the strides made in educational opportunity and...

NORTH ARKANSAS COMMUNITY COLLEGE.
October 2, 2000... "If You Think Education Is Expensive Try Ignorance." Andy McIntyre "YOUR MANAGEMENT JOB IS BEING ELIMInated." My breathing stopped, my mouth fell open and all I could do was blather, "Wha?" After the initial shock, I became determined...

OZARKA TECHNICAL COLLEGE.
October 2, 2000... "Community College Life" BEGINNING COLLEGE IN MID-LIFE CHANGED my life. Deciding to tackle an education so many years after high school was the best decision I've made. I married my high school sweetheart right out of school, got a job...

PULASKI TECHNICAL COLLEGE.
October 2, 2000... "To Be or Not to Be" TO BE OR NOT TO BE- THAT IS YOUR PRErogative. I composed this saying to accompany my high school senior picture. I had dreams then, and I still do today. After undergraduate and graduate school -- and in my perpetual...

NORTHWEST ARKANSAS COMMUNITY COLLEGE.
October 2, 2000... "Through the Maze to the Goal" IN 1990, I WAS AN RN WITH AN ASSOCIATE degree in nursing. I'd been thinking for some time of going back to school to earn my BSN, but I was terrified of entering a large university after nearly 17 years. ...

PHILLIPS COMMUNITY COLLEGE.
October 2, 2000... "The Starting Gate" MY MOTHER MARRIED WHEN SHE WAS A senior in high school and did not pursue a career until she felt she had instilled within her children superior values, high Christian morals and a firm determination to get the best...

GARLAND COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE.
October 2, 2000... "Serendipity" SELDOM DO WE COME ACROSS THE PERFECT opportunity at the perfect time. This scenario rang so true regarding my situation. Three years ago, I was desperate to find a rewarding career. As it was, the most financially...

COSSATOT TECHNICAL COLLEGE.
October 2, 2000... "A New World" IT'S AMAZING HOW WHAT STARTS OUT TO be a snap decision can turn a person's whole life around, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. In the fall of 1998 I made the decision to take a course in medical assistant...

PETIT JEAN COLLEGE.
October 2, 2000... "A Port in the Storm" PETIT JEAN COLLEGE IS LIKE A SAFE HARBOR, strategically located at Interstate 40 and state Highway 9 at Morrilton, just under the shadow of beautiful Petit Jean Mountain on the northern bank of the Arkansas River. It...

MID-SOUTH COMMUNITY COLLEGE.
October 2, 2000... "Opportunities of a Lifetime" FRIDAY, DEC. 10, 1999, WILL ALWAYS BE THE proudest day of my life. It was on that day that President Bill Clinton visited West Memphis. I had been given the honor of student representative from Mid-South...

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS COMMUNITY COLLEGE AT HOPE.
October 2, 2000... "ATYC: The Origins of an Educational Success" THE TRANSFORMATION OF MANY TECHNICAL schools in Arkansas to two-year community colleges in 1991 has been very successful in terms of the positive impact to students, communities and higher...

ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY AT BEEBE.
October 2, 2000... "What ASO-Beebe Has Meant to My Life" WHAT CAN A WOMAN DO WHEN SHE HAS one child, a divorce and a very low-paying job? Coming from a poor family with parents with only an eighth-grade education, I went to work after high school. Even though...

BLACK RIVER TECHNICAL COLLEGE.
October 2, 2000... "Accolades for Arkansas' Two-Year Colleges" MORE AND MORE FREQUENTLY, STUDENTS at community campuses are made up of folks whose plain good sense tells them to take the basics close to home and save the money they otherwise might have spent...

EAST ARKANSAS COMMUNITY COLLEGE.
October 2, 2000... "Keeping the Faith" SOMEWHERE AROUND THE TURN OF THE 18th century my ancestors moved to the United States from Ireland. They occupied their land, built homes, farms and businesses, raised their families and worshipped God. They also fought...

Bad Loans to Woman Haunt Bank.
October 2, 2000... MARCY MARIE MARLIN IS proving as mischievous and elusive as a poltergeist for officials at Bank of the Ozarks Inc. Last week, the Little Rock bank holding company held an analyst conference call to discuss a one-time $796,000 charge against...

Growth Led to Growing Pains During Ward's Tenure at UAMS.
October 2, 2000... Dr. Harry Ward Will Retire as Chancellor on Oct. 15 AFTER MORE THAN 21 years at the helm of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, a period of mammoth growth capped by growing pains, Dr. Harry P. Ward is two weeks from retirement....

Hospitals Await the Whims of Capitol Hill.
October 2, 2000... JOHNSON SMITH KNOWS better than most the hidden costs of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. So do the taxpayers of Conway County. Of every 100 patients who visit St. Anthony's Healthcare Center, 85 are on Medicare or Medicaid. Sweeping cuts...

KK A-OK.
October 2, 2000... It's nice that Melanie Steele is opening Avanti Cybercafe in the River Market District. But we'd really rather have a Krispy Kreme than a computer with our coffee. Unfortunately, we'll be waiting quite awhile. Brent Kennedy, a partner...

With Sugar an Top.
October 2, 2000... Krispy Kreme A-OK -- a corporate sister to the Hal Smith Restaurant Group that brought Outback Steakhouses to the Little Rock market -- is a new franchisee of the 63-yearold doughnut company. The LLC's first two shops will be in Oklahoma...

Bird Flies Coop.
October 2, 2000... Alan W. Bird, the high-profile lawyer and FOB who served as trustee for the longest active case file at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Fayetteville, left the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock firm Sept. 1. That date coincided with the submission...

Feuding Partners.
October 2, 2000... Did you hear what happened at Tri-Global Technologies? The company sued one of its members, Jason Heyn, for converting company assets, according to a complaint filed in Pulaski County Chancery Court. Tri-Global also accused Heyn of...

Expand at Your Leisure.
October 2, 2000... It's about time: Eagle Bank and Trust Co. opened a branch office in its adopted home city of Little Rock. The new branch, slated to be in a shopping center at 5600 R St. in the Heights, will be the bank's eighth branch and its first since...

On Target.
October 2, 2000... Plans are sketchy, but we hear Target wants to open a store in Wal-Mart Country. Specifically, the company is looking at Fayetteville's CMN Business Park, which is still under construction near the Northwest Arkansas Mall. ...

Smarter Vision.
October 2, 2000... Not just anyone can blare a commercial on a 3,210-SF screen to more than 51,000 excited football fans. In fact, only a select group of advertisers can tempt the University of Arkansas Reynolds Razorback Stadium crowd. The membership...

Who Needs a Contract?
October 2, 2000... Despite getting bumped from Razorbacks games by the University of Arkansas, Alltel Corp. Continues to support the UA and War Memorial Stadium. The Alltel Trough raised $66,580 at the first two games at Little Rock, giving half $33,290 to...

Scandalous Ordeal.
October 2, 2000... SO, THAT'S IT? THE LONG ORdeal of Whitewater is over? We can only hope so. Taxpayers forked over $52 million, at last count, and the country was put through hell for seven years only to come to the same conclusion most Arkansans and...

LETTERS.
October 2, 2000... Editor Wrong About Workers' Comp While the tone of [Gwen Moritz's column in the Sept. 18 edition of Arkansas Business] is misguided (but uninformed fair comment, I suppose), [the] factual assertion. that, "In Arkansas, every injured worker...

Wanted: Gray Hair.
October 2, 2000... NEWS FLASH: PROBLEM loans have doubled in the past two years, return on assets is below 1 percent nationally, profits have been slashed and federal regulators are worried that banks have loosened their credit standards too much. Not to...

State Fair Builds Sponsorship Program.
October 2, 2000... THE GATES WILL OPEN once again on Oct. 6 for the annual 10-day Arkansas State Fair. Each year more than 400,000 visitors come to experience the unique magic that is offered by the fair. It is arguably one of the most anticipated fall events in...

Green Transaction.
October 2, 2000... An 18,300-SF office building in west Little Rock changed hands in a $1.25 million deal. R.W. Butler Family Ltd., led by Jim T. Butler, bought the Cantrell Place Building at 2311 Biscayne Drive. The deal was financed with a $1.1 million...

Maumelle Site.
October 2, 2000... A 3.4-acre commercial site in Maumelle tipped the scales at $620,000. North Little Rock's National Bank of Arkansas purchased the site at the southeast corner of Maumelle Boulevard and Country Club Parkway from DeHaven Todd Ltd., led by...

Sherwood Land.
October 2, 2000... A 1.5-acre piece of Sherwood is under new ownership after a $327,000 deal ($5 per SF). Heritage Properties, led by Jackie Moore, acquired the land adjoining the west side of the Heritage Communications development at 2402 Wildwood Avenue....

O'Reilly Location.
October 2, 2000... A former convenience store location rang up a $190,000 deal. O'Reilly Automotive Inc. of Springfield, Mo., bought the two-acre property at the northeast corner of Asher Avenue and Fair Park Boulevard. The seller was Truman Arnold Cos., which...

Harper Property.
October 2, 2000... A five-acre commercial property in North Little Rock sold for $120,000 (55 cents per SF). Harper Brothers Partnership, led by Charles and Cindy Harper and Keith and Nikki Harper, purchased the property on Counts Massie Road. The seller...

Shady Valley Abode.
October 2, 2000... A 4,281-SF home in North Little Rock's Shady Valley neighborhood changed hands in a $508,000 deal. David Bevans III and his wife, Julie, acquired the house from James and Lynn Salmon. The deal was financed with a 30-year loan of $500,000...

Healthy Loan.
October 2, 2000... A pair of Little Rock fitness centers were used to secure a $1.36 million funding agreement. Riley's Health and Fitness Centers Inc., led by Pat Riley Jr., obtained the three-year loan from Regions Bank. The 10.2-acre Little Rock...

Crackerbox Mortgage.
October 2, 2000... A two-acre convenience store development in North Little Rock is backed with a $1.4 million financing package. RMG Crackerbox LLC, led by Rhonda Gardner, received the five-year loan from Union Bank & Ttust of Monticello. The project at...

Albright Funding.
October 2, 2000... A near-one acre commercial property at 119 Carnahan Drive in Maumelle is backed with a $550,000 mortgage. Chris and Margaret Albright secured the six-month loan from First Arkansas Bank & Trust of Jacksonville. The Albrights bought the...

Online Pet Retailer Loses $14.7 Million.
October 2, 2000... PetQuarters Inc. of Lonoke posted a net loss of $14.7 million for the fiscal year that ended June 30 on revenue of $ 13.7 million. Despite a huge increase in revenue from the $262,470 reported for fiscal 1999, the earnings report released...

Vectris Brings DSL Service to State.
October 2, 2000... High speed Internet access is becoming more available in Arkansas. Last week, Texas-based Vectris Communications, announced it was brining the Digital Subscriber Line and Internet service to nine Arkansas cities. The company will...

I Care Name Revived By Original Owner.
October 2, 2000... Gene Graves and Charles West have revived the I Care name, renaming their company I Care Partners Inc. and recreating a new version of the company that dissolved last year in the wake of HealthCor Holdings Inc.'s bankruptcy. For Graves,...

Farmers Expecting Help to Survive.
October 2, 2000... It's harvest time on Arkansas' farms and despite the drought and the continued low prices, most farmers are expected to survive -- at least for now -- with expected federal aid. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman told the House Agriculture...

Conway Business Sold to Canadians.
October 2, 2000... Structural Precast Products LLC in Conway has been sold to Coreslab Structures of Burlington, Ontario, the seller, Rogers Group Inc. of Nashville, Tenn., announced last week. "Precast is a small portion of Rogers' business and is a very...

Archie Schaffer III.
October 2, 2000... Archie Schaffer III, the Tyson Foods Inc. executive, was sentenced to a year and a day in prison and fined $5,000 by U.S. District Judge James Robertson, who said Schaffer deserved only probation and a fine. Schaffer was found guilty of...

Cannon Express Inc.
October 2, 2000... Cannon Express Inc. posted fourth-quarter revenue of $25 million, compared to $23.8 million in 1999, and a net loss of $145,183 compared to income of $214,497 in 1999. For the fiscal year, revenue was $91.8 million, compared to $95.2 million in...

Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
October 2, 2000... The family of the late Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., is the richest in the U.S., according to the Oct. 9 issue of Forbes magazine. The family fortune totals nearly $88 billion. Individually, Walton's wife, Helen, and children...

Fortune magazine.
October 2, 2000... Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is the world's fifth most-admired company, according to rankings in the Oct. 2 issue of Fortune magazine. The company advanced from seventh last year on the strength of its management (third), long-term investment value...

Dillard's Inc.
October 2, 2000... Dillard's Inc. declared a cash dividend of 4 cents a share on the Class A and Class B common stock, payable Nov. 1 to shareholders of record as of Sept. 30.

Edgewater Technology Inc.
October 2, 2000... Edgewater Technology Inc. of Fayetteville is selling all of the outstanding stock of Strategic Legal Resources, its legal staffing division, to a company owned by a group of investors including MidMark Capital Hand Edwardstone & Co. for $13.25...

Metroplan.
October 2, 2000... Metroplan, central Arkansas' council of local governments, has been awarded the 2000 National Award for Outstanding Leadership in Metropolitan Transportation Planning by the Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations.

Global Material Services.
October 2, 2000... Global Material Services, a river port and warehousing operation at Pine Bluff, faces a lawsuit by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's Memphis office for alleged sexual discrimination violations.

Eden Bioscience Corp.
October 2, 2000... Eden Bioscience Corp., a Seattle-based plant technology company focused on developing, manufacturing and marketing innovative natural products for agriculture, has announced an initial public offering of 5.8 million shares of its common stock...

Dolan Media Co.
October 2, 2000... Dolan Media Co. of Minneapolis has bought the Acollaid product line from Acxiom Corp. Phoenix-based Acollaid -- a contraction of the term "a collection aid" -- serves the credit management and collection industry by screening credit accounts...

Pocahontas Bancorp Inc.
October 2, 2000... Pocahontas Bancorp Inc. has authorized another repurchase of 225,000 shares, or approximately 5 percent of its approximately 4.5 million outstanding shares. The shares will be repurchased as market conditions permit.

JBU Starts Web-Based Christian Radio Station.
October 2, 2000... World Wide Web users can get their fill of contemporary Christian music through John Brown University's radio web site, www.klrc.com. Cutting a deal with BroadcastAmerica.com, station manager Sean Sawatzky started the live Internet radio feed...

Employers Warned About Germ Season.
October 2, 2000... Employers of America, the quarter-century-old association for employers, managers and supervisors, has published a poster designed to promote work place health. The posters started arriving at northwest Arkansas companies in September and will...

Popart Pops Up With Flashy Designs.
October 2, 2000... Boring, drab web sites be warned: A new approach to the Internet has begun to spread in northwest Arkansas. Relishing the visual aspects of graphic design, Jodie Daniels and Joe Hinton opened Popart Studio in Fayetteville to startle...

Southwestern Energy Drills for Major Overhaul.
October 2, 2000... Ditching Fayetteville Utility Would Mean Moving Company to Houston SOUTHWESTERN ENERGY Co. of Fayetteville is likely to move its headquarters to Houston when -- and if -- a buyer is found for its Arkansas Western Gas Co., according to...

Grocers in Arkansas Take Note of Hispanic Dollars.
October 2, 2000... WITH AN INFLUX OF HISPANICS, grocers are hoping to capture a part of the market by carrying authentic Mexican products, cutting prices to rates significantly lower than the competition and hiring bilingual clerks. "We discovered that...

Hope for Venture Capital Springs Anew With SBIC.
October 2, 2000... NOT SINCE THE DAYS OF David Hale, Capital Management Inc. and Whitewater has the acronym SBIC played a noticeable role in Arkansas commerce. But it's back, accompanied by a variety of recent plans designed to fill the small business void...

Complaints Flood In to Banks and Fayetteville Officials.
October 2, 2000... BANKERS AND CITY OFFICIALS are finding themselves in deep water with mortgage holders over changes in Fayetteville's flood insurance rate maps. The changes could cost business owners hundreds of dollars per year in flood insurance and, in...

State Facing Nursing Crisis, Dean Says.
October 2, 2000... Linda Hodges paints a bleak picture for the future of nursing in Arkansas. Studying statistics on registered nurses enrollment and graduation information, Hodges, the dean of nursing at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, said...

Arkansas Gets Grant to Study Uninsured.
October 2, 2000... Arkansas is one of 11 states that will share in a $13.6 million grant to study the characteristics of the nation's medically uninsured. From there, the receiving agencies are directed to develop insurance plans and report back to the...

New Web Site Help Nurses Find Jobs.
October 2, 2000... The Arkansas Nurses Association has developed a web site for health systems looking to hire nurses. The site, www.arkansasnursefinder.com, also will allow nurses to search it for their next job, according a news release. In October...

ARKANSAS BUSINESS LIST: HOSPITALS & MEDICAL CENTERS.
October 2, 2000... ARKANSAS BUSINESS LIST: HOSPITALS & MEDICAL CENTERS Ranked by revenue according to recent Medicare cost reports available to Arkansas Business ...

Aetna Moves Deeper Into Troubled Health Market.
October 2, 2000... ONE COMPETITOR IS DYING. Another is packing to leave Arkansas by year's end. And a third is slated for regulatory hearings in November to explain late and mishandled claims. Despite a rollercoaster market, the world's largest health...

Fewer Out-of-State Pharmacies Selling in Arkansas.
October 2, 2000... STARTING TODAY, WWW.lstonlinepharmacy.com. won't be able to ship, medicine to Arkansas. The North Carolina company's only staff member licensed to sell medicine in Arkansas is leaving, said company spokeswoman Tania Malik. Arkansas...

Hospitals Watching St. Vincent's New Union.
October 2, 2000... ST. VINCENT HEALTH SYStem and the new nurses' union say negotiations for a contract are moving along, but it still could be several months before one is in place. The Office and Professional Employees International Union, AFLCIO, which...

MOVERS & SHAKERS.
October 2, 2000... ACCOUNTING Suzanna Dean Bannerman and Robert Stephen Hogan have joined the audit staff of the Little Rock office of Arthur Andersen. Bannerman is a graduate of Baylor University, and Hogan holds a master's degree in accounting from the...

STOCK SUMMARY.
October 2, 2000... STOCK SUMMARY 9/28/00 Weekly YTD 52-Week Arkansas Public Company Stocks Close Change Change High Acxiom Corp. (ACXM) 31.78...

Barrett Stays Put.
October 2, 2000... Ouch. That's gotta hurt. After much fanfare -- particularly from "Drive Time Sports" host Randy Rainwater -- KSYG-FM, 103.7's station manager Hal Smith said Chuck Barrett won't be joining the talk station's lineup. "He made a verbal...

Slip UP.
October 2, 2000... If all goes well, Robyn Richardson will have returned to "Today's THV This Morning" today. Richardson sat out four days last week after, a fall at work sent her to the emergency room. According to KTHV-TV, Channel 11, news, director Mark...